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NBC Taps Seacrest to Host ‘The Million Second Quiz’

August 5, 2013 by NewsMaker

Ryan Seacrest, who hosts “American Idol” on Fox and “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” every year on ABC, now has a prime-time gig on a third broadcast network. On Monday, NBC announced that Mr. Seacrest would be the host of “The Million Second Quiz,” an interactive game show that is taking over nearly two weeks of the network’s schedule in September.

The announcement came after weeks of talks between NBC and Mr. Seacrest’s representatives, who had to ensure that the game show wouldn’t affect his many other commitments, like his daily radio show for Clear Channel. Mr. Seacrest is based in Los Angeles, but he will be in New York for the duration of the “Quiz,” which will pit trivia players against each other inside an hourglass-shaped structure in Midtown Manhattan.

The first hourlong episode will be shown on Sept. 9, a Monday, and will run nightly through Saturday. Then, after a one-day pause for “Sunday Night Football,” the show will resume on Sept. 16 and run through Sept. 19, when the ultimate winner will be crowned. During the 23 hours between episodes, the competition will continue at the hourglass and through a mobile phone app promoted by NBC.

Paul Telegdy, NBC’s president of alternative and late night programming, said in a statement that having Mr. Seacrest as host would help make the “Quiz” feel like the big-league television event that NBC wants it to be.

“When people see Ryan Seacrest, whether at the Emmys, the Oscars or New Year’s Eve, he is at the epicenter of national events,” Mr. Telegdy said. “He is a broadcaster, in all the traditional sense, but also in the most contemporary — he is an accomplished host of live TV and a master of social media and pop culture. This makes him perfect for ‘The Million Second Quiz.’ ”

Still, the arrangement is unusual, since networks typically do not like to share talent; the fact that it came together is a testament to Mr. Seacrest’s broad appeal. He will be an executive producer of the “Quiz” as well as its host. On Twitter on Monday he called it an “insane concept”: “The game will take one million seconds to finish…12 days, unknown bathroom breaks.”

The “Quiz” is initially a one-time scheduling stunt, but as with most things in television, if it proves to be popular, it could come back for another season. It is unclear whether Mr. Seacrest has committed to hosting future iterations, however. His main television job each winter and spring is at Fox, where he hosts “Idol” beginning in January. His “Idol” contract ends when the next season of the singing competition ends in May.

Separately, Mr. Seacrest has a wide-ranging but nonexclusive contract with NBC’s parent company, NBCUniversal, that has him contribute to Olympics coverage, file reports for the “Today” show and produce reality shows for E! and other NBC-owned channels. That contract also ends next spring.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/business/media/nbc-taps-seacrest-to-host-the-million-second-quiz.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

2 Networks Hint at Leaving the Airwaves

While viewed largely as saber-rattling, the idea that the networks could be converted into cable channels gained attention in the television world because such a move would have wide-reaching implications for viewers and station owners.

The possibility had not been publicly broached by a major broadcaster until Chase Carey, the chief operating officer of Fox’s parent, News Corporation, spoke at a conference of broadcasters on Monday morning.

Later in the day, Haim Saban, the chairman of Univision, lined up with Fox, calling Aereo a pirate and saying, “To serve our community, we need to protect our product and revenue streams and therefore we, too, are considering all of our options — including converting to pay TV.”

One week ago, a federal appeals court rejected broadcasters’ attempts to shut down Aereo. The service uses an array of tiny antennas to pick up free signals from stations in New York, including two owned by News Corporation, and streams the stations to paying subscribers’ devices.

Aereo is promoted as an alternative to cable, with only a fraction of the channels but at a fraction of the cost, and it allows for easy viewing of live TV on phones and tablets.

Aereo says its service is legal because each viewer has an individually assigned antenna, not unlike viewers with rabbit ears hooked up to their TVs. But owners of local stations disagree. Aereo is backed by Barry Diller, who founded Fox with Rupert Murdoch nearly 30 years ago.

“Aereo is stealing our signal,” Mr. Carey said Monday, repeating what owners have said since a group of them sued the service a year ago. He said the stations would keep up their legal battle, though he did not specify how.

He said that although News Corporation is committed to the broadcasting business model for now, it could abandon the airwaves if Aereo remains intact.

The comments seemed aimed at lawmakers who might side with broadcasters in responding to the perceived threat posed by Aereo. The threat is specifically aimed at retransmission fees, which have become a crucial second source of revenue for stations as ad losses mount.

The appeals court ruling in favor of Aereo could lead cable and satellite operators to set up their own antenna arrays and use them to avoid retransmission fees, or at least threaten to do so.

Reacting to Mr. Carey’s comments, Aereo said in a statement, “It’s disappointing to hear that Fox believes that consumers should not be permitted to use an antenna to access free-to-air broadcast television.” Aereo invoked the origins of TV, when Congress handed over valuable public airwaves “with the promise that they would broadcast in the public interest and convenience, and that they would remain free-to-air.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/business/media/fox-hints-it-might-leave-the-airwaves.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

NBC Taps Seacrest to Host ‘The Million Second Quiz’

2 Networks Hint at Leaving the Airwaves

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